by Heidi Green
September 30, 2009

There were tents throughout our house for half of the summer—maybe more—draped from chair to bedframe, over the art easel and across the couch, and so on. I’d dismantle the blanket structures long enough to clean; they’d be back in some new form as soon as I turned my back.

There were bug homes in the yard for the entire summer. (There are some there even now.) Nature’s bounty of rocks, sticks, and leaves combined with small containers of water and other gathered treasures to form structures for the latest buggy playmates. We’d set the insects on their way by the end of each day and dismantle the structures as needed; they’d be back within hours.

I wouldn’t have it any other way. I admire my children’s play. It feels right to me when I hear them talking about the things and events they imagine, creating new games, and making up stories that go along with their creations.

Recent attention to the evolution of children’s play seems to suggest that it feels right because it is right. For all of the gymnastics classes, skating lessons, and day camps that are available—or, perhaps, in spite of them—children still need free time for free play.

What is free play?
In Children at Play: American History, Howard Chudacoff calls our attention to the shift in parental focus from the activities of play to the tools of play, the toys. He traces this shift to October 1955 and the launching of the first toy advertising campaign on TV outside of the holiday season. For most of human history, Chudacoff says, play was “more or less unsupervised” and involved “roam[ing]” and “engag[ing] in freewheeling imaginative play.”

“They improvised play, whether it was in the outdoors … or whether it was on a street corner or somebody’s backyard,” Chudacoff explains, “They improvised their own play; they regulated their play; they made up their own rules.”

The second half of the 20th century saw a shift away from this kind of play as children were given increasingly specific toys and instructions for how to play with them. Chudacoff calls this “the commercialization and co-optation of child’s play” and says that it “begins to shrink the size of children’s imaginative play.”

Other concerns that have eroded children’s free play: parents’ desire for safe environments that “could not be penetrated by threats of the outside world,” parents’ concerns about their children’s achievement and, perhaps, increased reliance on childcare with its structured daily agendas.

Why free play?
What does it matter if children are playing according to their rules or their parents? What does it matter if they’re too busy for unstructured play?

According to researchers like Chudacoff, Deborah Leong, and Laura Berk, it matters a lot. They agree that time spent in free, imaginative play helps children develop a critical cognitive skill known as “executive function,” which is thought to be a better predictor of school success than a child’s IQ. The primary aspect of executive function is the ability to self-regulate—that is, to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline.

One way that children develop executive function is through their private speech during make-believe play. Children, like adults, Berk says, often verbalize their effort “to surmount obstacles, to master cognitive and social skills, and to manage [their] emotions.”

But, in structured play, private speech declines. Without private speech, children can’t practice self-regulation. They don’t get to practice using their imagination. They don’t get, as author Anna Quindlen plainly puts it, “a moment’s peace.”

Why play at all?
Part of the reason free play may be at risk is that play of any kind is under fire. Yale researcher Dorothy Singer notes that teachers and school administrators don’t see the value of play. “Because of testing,” she says, “and the emphasis now that you have to really pass these tests, teachers are starting earlier and earlier to drill the kids in their basic fundamentals. Play is viewed as unnecessary, a waste of time.”

Singer notes that many articles have documented the shortening of free play for children, with “the teachers in these schools are using the time for cognitive skills.”  Unfortunately, that’s not likely to change any time soon.

Recent remarks by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Barack Obama advocate for a longer school year for public school students. Whether they feel more in-school time is necessary to reduce the “high anxiety” of parents who have to work until “7 o’clock” or to catch up with students in Asian countries who are out-competing the U.S., their arguments boil down to one goal: more hours spent in school by our children. Longer school days, longer school years. Fewer hours spent at play, especially free play. (More desk time for kids seems an odd goal at a time when childhood obesity is accorded a great deal of concern.)

Encouraging imaginative play
Here are some suggestions for encouraging imaginative play at home:

• “Simon Says”: That old standard requires children to inhibit themselves, building self-regulation. It’s also simple enough to understand that even young children can play.

• Complex imaginative play: Children should engage in play that requires them to plan and enact scenarios for at least a half an hour. It’s better if they can sustain it for hours. Realistic props may jump-start very young children, but symbolic props should be encouraged for most children.

• Activities with planning: Games with directions are helpful as are those that have patterns for construction, as well as non-play activities such as following cooking recipes.

• Reading together: This fosters language development, and many of the characters in youngsters’ stories model self-regulation.

• Encourage self-talk: Allowing and encouraging children to speak to themselves while engaged in challenging tasks supports concentration, effort, and problem-solving.

Finally, as in so many parenting decisions, balance is probably the key. Look for opportunities to enable your children to play freely and stretch their imaginations, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up all structured activities. These have, after all, been shown to have some benefits too. So, if you have a soccer enthusiast on your hands like I do, you don’t need to hold them back from team play. (But you might not want to sign them up for soccer and football and T-ball and gymnastics and swim and pep club all at the same time.)

Whether their play involves tents or not, the goal here is to make sure that children have time for free, undirected play so that they can develop the ability to self-regulate—and because it’s just plain fun.

And you can’t underestimate the value of fun. As Anna Quindlen puts it, “A good time is what [kids] remember long after toddler programs and art projects are over.”

Heidi Green has been researching and writing about women’s and children health since she moved to Pittsburgh more than 10 years ago. She is also a children’s book reviewer in her spare time. She is mom to Ben, Katie, Sam, and Max.